Joana Palha | |
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Born | Joana Almeida Palha 1969 Portugal |
Occupation | Neuroscientist |
Known for | Studies on impact of iodine nutrition and thyroid on the brain |
Joana Palha (born 1969) is a neuroscientist and professor at the School of Medicine of the University of Minho, in Braga in the north of Portugal.
Between 1988 and 1991, Joana Almeida Palha took an undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Porto. This was followed by a PhD from the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute of the University of Porto between 1992 and 1995, with the work being carried out at Columbia University in New York City. Between 2014 and 2016, she took a master's in public health (epidemiology) at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. [1] [2]
Palha is a neuroscientist whose work has focused mainly on iodine nutrition, endocrinology (thyroid), pregnancy, ageing and the barriers of the brain. She began working in New York in 1995 as a post-doctoral fellow at the New York University Medical Center, after completing her PhD. From 1996 to 1999, she was an assistant professor at the Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz in Gandra, Portugal. She then moved to the Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular in Porto before, in 2001, joining the University of Minho medical school as an assistant professor. She was made an associate professor in 2005 and promoted to full professor in 2010. From 2013 to 2015, Palha was a visiting scientist at the Ageing Research Centre of the Karolinska Institute. [1] [2] [3]
Palha's studies on thyroid hormones during pregnancy contributed to the current Portuguese guidelines for iodine supplementation to pregnant women. She is a member of a wide range of medical organizations, on which she has served as a member of the board or of various committees, including the Society for Neuroscience in Washington D.C., the International Brain Research Organization in Paris, the Scientific Council of the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT), which is the organization in Portugal that decides on funding allocation for research, and on the committee of senior officials for the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). She has been a member of the jury of several international prizes. [1] [2]
In addition to the FCT, Palha has also reviewed project proposals for international funding agencies such as the European Commission; the National Science Foundation, USA; the Alzheimer's Research Foundation; and the Fulbright Program. She is an associate editor of Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, Journal of Molecular Neuroscience and Neurology, Psychiatry and Brain Research and is a reviewer for several other journals. [1] [2]
Palha has been an author or co-author of over one hundred peer-reviewed journal articles. Those for which she has been the sole or lead author include: [2] [3] [4]
Hyperthyroidism is the condition that occurs due to excessive production of thyroid hormones by the thyroid gland. Thyrotoxicosis is the condition that occurs due to excessive thyroid hormone of any cause and therefore includes hyperthyroidism. Some, however, use the terms interchangeably. Signs and symptoms vary between people and may include irritability, muscle weakness, sleeping problems, a fast heartbeat, heat intolerance, diarrhea, enlargement of the thyroid, hand tremor, and weight loss. Symptoms are typically less severe in the elderly and during pregnancy. An uncommon but life-threatening complication is thyroid storm in which an event such as an infection results in worsening symptoms such as confusion and a high temperature; this often results in death. The opposite is hypothyroidism, when the thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormone.
The thyroid, or thyroid gland, is an endocrine gland in vertebrates. In humans, it is in the neck and consists of two connected lobes. The lower two thirds of the lobes are connected by a thin band of tissue called the isthmus (pl.: isthmi). The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the neck below the Adam's apple. Microscopically, the functional unit of the thyroid gland is the spherical thyroid follicle, lined with follicular cells (thyrocytes), and occasional parafollicular cells that surround a lumen containing colloid. The thyroid gland secretes three hormones: the two thyroid hormones – triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) – and a peptide hormone, calcitonin. The thyroid hormones influence the metabolic rate and protein synthesis and growth and development in children. Calcitonin plays a role in calcium homeostasis. Secretion of the two thyroid hormones is regulated by thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), which is secreted from the anterior pituitary gland. TSH is regulated by thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), which is produced by the hypothalamus.
Hypothyroidism is a disorder of the endocrine system in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormones. It can cause a number of symptoms, such as poor ability to tolerate cold, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, constipation, slow heart rate, depression, and weight gain. Occasionally there may be swelling of the front part of the neck due to goitre. Untreated cases of hypothyroidism during pregnancy can lead to delays in growth and intellectual development in the baby or congenital iodine deficiency syndrome.
Thyroid-stimulating hormone (also known as thyrotropin, thyrotropic hormone, or abbreviated TSH) is a pituitary hormone that stimulates the thyroid gland to produce thyroxine (T4), and then triiodothyronine (T3) which stimulates the metabolism of almost every tissue in the body. It is a glycoprotein hormone produced by thyrotrope cells in the anterior pituitary gland, which regulates the endocrine function of the thyroid.
Triiodothyronine, also known as T3, is a thyroid hormone. It affects almost every physiological process in the body, including growth and development, metabolism, body temperature, and heart rate.
Hashimoto's thyroiditis, also known as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis and Hashimoto's disease, is an autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland is gradually destroyed. A slightly broader term is autoimmune thyroiditis, identical other than that it is also used to describe a similar condition without a goiter.
A neuroscientist is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial cells and especially their behavioral, biological, and psychological aspect in health and disease.
The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, more commonly known as The Florey, is an Australian medical research institute that undertakes research into treatments for brain and mind disorders. The institute's areas of interest include Parkinson's disease, stroke, motor neurone disease, addiction, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Autism, Huntington's disease, depression, schizophrenia, brain function in health and disease, heart failure, and dementia.
Neuroendocrinology is the branch of biology which studies the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system; i.e. how the brain regulates the hormonal activity in the body. The nervous and endocrine systems often act together in a process called neuroendocrine integration, to regulate the physiological processes of the human body. Neuroendocrinology arose from the recognition that the brain, especially the hypothalamus, controls secretion of pituitary gland hormones, and has subsequently expanded to investigate numerous interconnections of the endocrine and nervous systems.
The sodium/iodide cotransporter, also known as the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC5A5 gene. It is a transmembrane glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 87 kDa and 13 transmembrane domains, which transports two sodium cations (Na+) for each iodide anion (I−) into the cell. NIS mediated uptake of iodide into follicular cells of the thyroid gland is the first step in the synthesis of thyroid hormone.
Science and technology in Portugal is mainly conducted within a network of research and development (R&D) units belonging to public universities and state-managed autonomous research institutions. There are also non-state-run research institutions and some private R&D projects developed by companies.
Thyroid hormones are any hormones produced and released by the thyroid gland, namely triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). They are tyrosine-based hormones that are primarily responsible for regulation of metabolism. T3 and T4 are partially composed of iodine, derived from food. A deficiency of iodine leads to decreased production of T3 and T4, enlarges the thyroid tissue and will cause the disease known as simple goitre.
Miia K. Kivipelto is a Finnish neuroscientist and professor at the University of Eastern Finland and Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Her research focuses on dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Israel Lyon Chaikoff was a Canadian-American physiologist and biochemist, known for the Wolff–Chaikoff effect. He and his colleagues were pioneers in the use of radioactive iodine (iodine-131) to investigate thyroid function.
Gabriella Morreale de Escobar was an Italian-born Spanish chemist who specialised in the thyroid. She and her husband Francisco Escobar del Rey showed that thyroid hormones cross the placenta during pregnancy and are essential for fetal brain development. She established a national newborn screening program for congenital hypothyroidism in Spain and helped to introduce iodised salt to prevent thyroid problems caused by iodine deficiency.
Ivanka Savic Berglund is a Serbian-Swedish neuroscientist, a professor of neurology and chief physician at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and an adjunct professor in the neurology department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Savic is best known for her neurophysiology and neuroimaging research relating to epilepsy, sex differences, sexual orientation, gender identity, brain processing of odors and pheromones, and the effects of chronic stress on the brain. Savic is a co-founder of the Stockholm Brain Institute and the editor of several medical books.
Catarina Resende de Oliveira is a Portuguese neurologist, researcher, university professor, and doctor. A full professor of biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, she studies the processes that cause neurological degeneration responsible for illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Diana Prata is a Portuguese neuroscientist who concentrates on identifying the biological basis of human behaviour. She reported the first evidence that schizophrenia-risk genes can also predispose to bipolar disorder and has also investigated reasons why people respond differently to antipsychotic medications. She is head of the Biomedical Neuroscience Lab at the University of Lisbon.
Ana Cristina Rego is a Portuguese neurologist. She is a professor at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and is head of the research group on Mitochondria and Neurodegenerative disorders, researching on topics such as Alzheimer's disease, Huntingdon's disease, and Parkinson's disease. She is presently president of the Portuguese Society of Neuroscience.